Page 243 of Mafia Kings: Valentino

I opened my eyes at the end. They stung in the saltwater –

But there wasn’t much point. All I could see were a bunch of blurry shapes in the semi-darkness.

At least I could tell the black suitcase blended in with the base of the boulder.

I felt for the zipper, found it, yanked it to the side –

And finally I saw something:

A stream of bubbles, silver in the moonlight.

As they rose past my face, the suitcase settled heavily on the seafloor.

My lungs were screaming. I couldn’t stay under much longer.

I found a couple of small rocks and shoved them through the gap –

Then hastily zipped the bag up again.

I kicked off the bottom and swam to the surface, at least ten feet up –

And got slammed against the side of the boulder by a wave.

FUCK.

I was exhausted, but I swam as fast as I could back to the stairs.

Once there, I dragged myself up the steps, water cascading off my soaked clothes.

Just before I reached street level, I peeked over the retaining wall to see if anyone was watching.

No one was.

Everybody was gathered around Isabella, who was still crying loudly across the street.

Good girl.

I climbed up on the guard wall and stepped over the iron railing.

There was no longer anything keeping me from falling into the Mediterranean.

Ludavica stood back from the group around Isabella, her eyes roving the street.

She was looking forme.

As soon as she did, she screamed, “NO!”

That was my cue.

Before any of the bystanders could see where Ludavica was looking, I jumped off the wall into nothingness.

I aimed for the water beyond the rocks directly below.

I easily cleared them –

But I was still jumping 20 feet into waist-high water.

I tried to break my fall by buckling my legs, but it didn’t help much.

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